Vote for a Greener Water Reclamation Board!

Cook County's Metropolitan Water Reclamation District is one of the largest waste treatment and flood prevention agencies in the world. Overseen by an elected Board of Commissioners, this taxpayer-funded agency is also one of Cook County's largest governmental bodies, with over 2,000 employees and an annual operating budget of well over a billion dollars.

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, or MWRD, is responsible for:

Flood prevention and abatement in Cook County

Wastewater and sewage treatment for most of Cook County (a handful of suburban municipalities have their own sewer authority)

Water quality testing in the Chicago Area Waterway System, which covers 76 miles of navigable waterways all across Cook County

For more than 20 years, all Commissioners elected to the Board have been Democrats. The Green Party is running a full slate of five candidates in 2018 on a unified platform that prioritizes flood-preventing infrastructure, independent oversight of the agency's massive budget, and governmental reforms to end the entrenched culture of pay-to-play, cronyism, and nepotism.

Following the news services' call of the "Vacancy of Bradford" Metropolitan Water Reclamation District election, I have reached out to my opponent on the ballot, M. Cameron "Cam" Davis, to congratulate him on his victory.

It has been a pleasure and a privilege to run on a ballot line with as qualified and capable a candidate as Cam Davis. "Opponent" is a misleading term in this race -- while we pursued different party's nominations, both of us have clearly sought needed improvements at the MWRD, and I look forward to seeing Cam's work on the Board of Commissioners.

In recent months, Cam Davis and I were named co-defendants in a legal challenge over our right to be on the ballot, and I was pleased to see the courts uphold the right of voters to choose their preferred candidate, rather than to have a gubernatorial appointee serve for two more years. I hope that many more Cook County elections see voters given a similar choice between two (or more!) qualified, dedicated office-seekers.

The issues that the Greens for MWRD campaign raised over the course of this cycle -- responsible use of MWRD land, third-stage disinfecting treatment at MWRD wastewater plants, climate change readiness as part of the MWRD mission, and an end to campaign contributions from MWRD contractors -- are issues that the Green Party will continue to press for in future MWRD election cycles, and I sincerely hope and believe Cam Davis can be a leader within his own party on those same issues.

To all my supporters and voters this year: from the bottom of my heart, thank you. We have shown that a grassroots, small-dollar campaign can exceed all expectations, and I firmly believe that we can organize and grow to become an even more formidable force by 2020.